Is recruitment bucking the economic trend?

Figures released today suggest that the job market is performing surprisingly well amid ongoing gloomy news about the UK and global economies.



According to figures released today by Reed as part of its monthly job index, new job opportunities rose in November to their highest level for almost two years. Furthermore, demand for new staff is now 20% higher than at the same time last year.

This growth continues an upward trend recorded in October’s figures, and marks the highest level of job opportunities recorded by the Reed Job Index since it began in December 2009.

This is certainly good news, and could be considered something of a surprise given the current and predicted economic landscape.

However, growth hasn’t been witnessed across the board, either geographically or as far as sectors are concerned. London, the South East and the North West of England have seen the most growth, while there has been a fall in areas such as Wales, Scotland and the North East of England.

Meanwhile there has been an increase in demand in sectors including engineering and IT alongside service sector roles such as accountancy, leisure and tourism, while there has been an unsurprising month-on-month fall (5%) in public sector activity.

It will be interesting to see whether the upward trend recorded in the Reed Job Index continues into the New Year, once things pick up after what is usually a quiet period during December. But judging by today’s figures, it appears recruiters are far more enthusiastic than the economists and forecasters from whom we have heard so much recently.